Dove vs. Axe: My Take on the Unilever Controversy

The Controversy

Are you familiar with the Dove and Axe controversy? Basically, both of these brands are under the Unilever parent company, yet stand for wholly different morals. The question is: can both brands coexist under the Unilever umbrella?

Dove’s Stance

Dove stands for real beauty and real women. It stands for the perfection that is imperfection and that beauty comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages. In order to impart its stance to the world, Dove launched The Campaign for Real Beauty in September 2004. The brand chose a group of real women (not models) as their spokespeople (pictured below).

Image from Dove.us

Boldly featuring real women instead of models was only part of the campaign. Dove also put together several viral videos on the internet exposing the reality of the beauty industry. One such video, Evolution, showed an average-looking woman being transformed into the supermodel (pictured below) we see on a billboard, ending with “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.”

Screenshots from Youtube.com video, Evolution by Dove

Dove’s efforts didn’t even end there. The brand also started the Dove Self-Esteem Fund for girls (primarily aged 8-12), which included workshops, programs, and conversations to establish a healthy self-image and self-esteem.

Axe’s Stance

Everything about the Axe campaign plays to the old adage, “sex sells.” Axe promises users that scantily-clad model-esque women will be unable to resist them, flocking to them like uncontrollable animals. The women in Axe advertisements wear almost nothing, are sex-obsessed, and are objects of desire more than anything (pictured below). A far cry from the Dove women mentioned above.

Images from TheAxeEffect.com

Axe’s current campaign is Showerpooling, which encourages men to shower with women in an effort to save water and the environment–and get naked with women. The creators of the campaign have gone as far as creating an online pledge to “Showerpool” that can be signed by men.

While these ads are targeted to men ages 18-25 (perhaps even older), Axe’s real target market is middle and high boys around ages 12-18. Which poses the question: Is Axe’s campaign strategy in line with Unilever’s? Is Dove’s? Can they coexist? Which leads me to examine Unilever’s Mission.

Unilever’s Mission

According to Unilever’s website, the company’s mission is “We help people around the world meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and well-being, with brands that help people look good, feel good and get more out of life.”

My Recommendations

Given Unilever’s mission, I don’t think that both brands can exist under the same parent company ethically and morally. Dove stands for real women and real beauty while Axe stands for sex-crazed and perfect models. One inherently disputes the other. Dove cannot attack “the beauty industry,” when the so-called bad-guys of the industry are under the same parent company as Dove itself!! That’s simply ridiculous. There are two solutions:

1. Sell either Dove or Axe to another company and come clean about Unilever’s real values.

2. Change Axe’s marketing strategy to align more with the ethically-driven Dove campaign.

Changing the Axe Campaign

Assuming that Unilever is unwilling to sell the highly profitable Axe brand, I propose that Axe change its campaign to be more target-market friendly (do 12 year old boys really need to watch naked women?) and align with Unilever’s mission. Brand guru Kelly O’Keefe says, “Axe knows its target market is 12 year old boys. Which raises the question: is it ethical for Axe to market hot, naked women to boys of that age?”

Axe could capitalize on this awkward in-between target market’s need for self-confidence, much like the Dove girl counterparts. Perhaps an age-appropriate (yet humorous) message would be more ethical and allow the two brands to exist in peace.

One idea for a new Axe campaign came from my classmate, who dreamed up a tagline of “Let Axe do the work.” With this in mind, I came up with the following idea for a TV commercial:

Comments

Your idea for a commercial still objectifies women. The ridiculous idea that young girls need their father to be so controlling over their decisions is destructive. To suggest that the father has so much more control and power over her because she is just so delicate and stupid continues the idea that women cant think for themselves and need to be governed by a man at all times

Hey girl! Firstly, this post is from years ago when I was in a college marketing class; it is not a part of my normal blog content. I’ve been meaning to delete all my assignments that were published here! You likely haven’t been a reader since many of my posts are about empowering young women to follow God’s plan for their lives–to boldly walk away from societal expectations or convention to pursue their own dreams and aspirations (and not those of their father…I certainly am not following my father’s dream for my life! 😉 ). I disagree that my commercial idea objectifies women, though I now think it is just a bad idea. Hah! Young girls don’t need to be controlled, but they definitely need to be protected by their parents. If that assignment were now and I wasn’t in the trenches of my senior year of college, I could come up with something better! We can agree to disagree, though! 🙂 I would encourage you to consider your wording when commenting on blogs, especially when you haven’t taken the time to get to know the writer at all. Your comment came across as accusatory and hurtful, where it could’ve sparked a good conversation. I hope you’ll stick around and read some of my newer posts, they’re a whole world of difference from this rogue college assignment!

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Hey, I’m Blair!

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I'm a small town Texas transplant, wife, and dog mom. I believe in slow, simple, intentional living in lieu of the world's breakneck pace and write honestly with the hope of encouraging other women. Grab a cup of warm and enjoy!
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